U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent said labs should be held accountable for AI.

A-share benchmarks strengthened in the afternoon; the Shanghai Composite rose more than 1% by the close, the Shenzhen Composite was up 0.67% and the ChiNext Index was up 0.79%.

German Chancellor Merz said he has secured CDU backing to remain in office and will press ahead with a reform agenda after the party suffered heavy losses in Sunday’s Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania election. The CDU fell below 5% and failed to enter the state parliament for the first time in post-war history, with gains for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) fueling internal calls for his resignation. Merz convened CDU leaders in Berlin and proposed maintaining the 16-month coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) to advance comprehensive pension, healthcare and tax reforms.